Americans United - salemhttps://www.au.org/tags/salem
enReligious Freedom: The Greatest Gift Of Allhttps://www.au.org/blogs/wall-of-separation/religious-freedom-the-greatest-gift-of-all-1
<a href="/about/people/rob-boston">Rob Boston</a><div class="field field-name-field-blog-type field-type-taxonomy-term-reference field-label-hidden"><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even"><a href="/blogs/wall-of-separation">Wall of Separation</a></div></div></div><div class="field field-name-field-callout field-type-text-long field-label-hidden"><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even">Some seem determined to force everyone to celebrate Christmas. This year, as in others, Religious Right groups spent much of December moaning about an alleged &#039;War on Christmas.&#039;</div></div></div><div class="field field-name-body field-type-text-with-summary field-label-hidden"><div class="prose"><div><p><em>Note: This blog post is a re-publication of an item that originally appeared on Christmas Day, 2007. "The Wall of Separation" will be on hiatus until Monday, Dec. 29. Happy Holidays to all!</em></p><p>It's Christmas. Some Americans are observing this day by attending religious services, others are celebrating in a mostly secular fashion while still others aren't making note of it at all.</p><p>What could be better than to have the right to choose for yourself?</p><p>I was reminded recently that it wasn't always that way. I've been reading an <a href="https://mail.au.org/owa/redir.aspx?C=8LWKuMF7q0WPN5u5wWOvByfS3oYS1dAI0020L1raVn77Q6ZMviTkyemtO-Jt-gU21ZkhiNORWTY.&amp;URL=http%3a%2f%2fwww.amazon.com%2fSalem-Witch-Judge-Repentance-Samuel%2fdp%2f0060859601%2fref%3dsr_1_1%3fie%3dUTF8%26s%3dbooks%26qid%3d1230063032%26sr%3d1-1" target="_blank"> interesting book</a> titled <em>Salem Witch Judge: The Life and Repentance of Samuel Sewall</em> by Eve LaPlante. Sewall was on the bench during the Salem Witch Trials but later was deeply sorry for his role in that fiasco. In giving the background of his times, LaPlante reminds of us of the harsh Puritan theocracy that ruled Massachusetts.</p><p>"Friday was Christmas Day, which the Sewalls were careful not to observe," LaPlante writes. "Puritans had left feast days behind in England, along with the many other features of the state church they still reproached for its 'popish injunctions,' in the words of Samuel's father-in-law."</p><p>LaPlante notes that in 1659 "in keeping with its goal of creating a Bible Commonwealth, the Massachusetts General Court banned all Christmas celebrations."</p><p>The statute read, "[B]y reason of some still observing such festivals as were superstitiously kept in other countries to the great dishonor of God and offence of others...whosoever shall be found observing any such day as Christmas and the like, either by forbearing labor, feasting, or any other way...shall pay for every such offence, five shillings a fine."</p><p>In church that week, Sewall listened to his minister, the Rev. James Allen, remind the congregation that observing Christmas is "anti-Christian heresy."</p><p>Nearly 350 years have passed, and now we seem to have the opposite problem: Some seem determined to force everyone to celebrate Christmas. This year, as in others, Religious Right groups spent much of December moaning about an alleged "War on Christmas."</p><p>They complained because city halls and courthouses were not festooned with nativity scenes. They wailed because public school concerts included "Frosty the Snowman." They even had the temerity to whine when clerks in big-box stores said, "Happy Holidays" as they rang up purchases.</p><p>The Religious Right sought a strange thing: Instead of laboring to put more creches where they belong by nestling them among the greenery of a brightly lit and decorated church lawn, the cultural warriors of the "Christmas Police" advocated putting them on the cold, marble steps of city hall.</p><p>They did stranger things: Every year, people complain that commercialism, greed and overspending mar Christmas. The Religious Right's answer to that is to ask the business community to re-sanctify the holiday.</p><p>They sought a religious experience in a public school – the last place that can provide an authentic one. The Religious Right did this, even though hundreds of churches threw open their doors and heartily welcomed anyone seeking to connect with God for the holidays.</p><p>But worst of all, the Religious Right, having realized its groups could make money by posing as Christmas defenders, launched crude invective against anyone who dared to point out that government should not be in the business of promoting the religious aspects of the holiday. Religious Right groups sold rude buttons, stickers and other geegaws proclaiming its smug moral superiority – making a mockery of the very season of peace and goodwill it so claims to cherish.</p><p>If you celebrate Christmas, then I wish you a very merry Christmas. If you do not, I send my wishes for a good day. I'm thankful that you, I and all other Americans have the right to choose – remembering that years ago, people did not enjoy that right. They had instead a "general court" consisting of government officials who worked in conjunction with ministers to determine which mode of religious expression was right for all and pleasing to God.</p><p>It took some time for more enlightened thinkers to come along and put a stop to all of that. What they gave us – complete religious liberty resting on the wall of separation between church and state – is the greatest gift of all. And best of all, unlike an electronic gadget that breaks in a month or a sweater that doesn't quite fit, it's one we can enjoy every day of the year.</p></div><p> </p></div></div><div class="tags clearfix"><div class="field-label">Issues:&nbsp;</div><div class="field-items"><span class="field-item"><a href="/issues/government-sponsored-religious-displays">Government-Sponsored Religious Displays</a></span></div></div><div class="tags clearfix"><div class="field-label">Tags:&nbsp;</div><div class="field-items"><span class="field-item"><a href="/tags/christmas">Christmas</a></span>, <span class="field-item"><a href="/tags/war-christmas">war on christmas</a></span>, <span class="field-item"><a href="/tags/eve-laplante">Eve LaPlante</a></span>, <span class="field-item"><a href="/tags/samuel-sewall">Samuel Sewall</a></span>, <span class="field-item"><a href="/tags/salem">salem</a></span></div></div>Thu, 25 Dec 2014 14:48:50 +0000Rob Boston10764 at https://www.au.orghttps://www.au.org/blogs/wall-of-separation/religious-freedom-the-greatest-gift-of-all-1#commentsLesson From Boston: Let's Not Exile Religious Dissenter Anne Hutchinson Againhttps://www.au.org/blogs/wall-of-separation/lesson-from-boston-lets-not-exile-religious-dissenter-anne-hutchinson-again
<a href="/about/people/rob-boston">Rob Boston</a><div class="field field-name-field-blog-type field-type-taxonomy-term-reference field-label-hidden"><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even"><a href="/blogs/wall-of-separation">Wall of Separation</a></div></div></div><div class="field field-name-field-callout field-type-text-long field-label-hidden"><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even">We need to embrace Anne Hutchinson and what she stands for, not attempt to exile her once again.</div></div></div><div class="field field-name-body field-type-text-with-summary field-label-hidden"><div class="prose"><p>My family and I enjoyed a nice vacation last week in Boston and its environs. The weather was clear, and the days were full.</p>
<p>We spent some time at the beach, but like dads everywhere, I made sure to mix a little education in with our recreation. Thus, we trooped along Boston's celebrated "Freedom Trail" (in 96-degree heat!), visited Minute Man National Historical Park in Concord and spent a day in Salem.</p>
<p>The Salem trip was very interesting. This charming bayside town emphasizes its involvement in the witchcraft hysteria of 1692. To be honest, some of the attractions are a bit garish, but others are done with more taste. There is a memorial to the 20 victims that consists of a series of granite slabs, each inscribed with a victim's name. Its simplicity is moving.</p>
<p>It's important that we remember the victims of theocratic religious hysteria. And the Salem museums, despite their occasionally florid flourishes, ensure that will happen.</p>
<p>The victims of the Salem hysteria are remembered today, but others who succumbed to the Puritans' religious fanaticism are not as well known – and efforts are under way to sweep them under the rug.</p>
<p>Consider the case of Anne Hutchinson. Hutchinson was an early religious dissenter. She challenged Puritan orthodoxy by holding "illegal" religious meetings in her home. Expelled from the Massachusetts Bay Colony, she settled in Rhode Island for a time before moving on to New York. There she was killed during a violent conflict with Native Americans.</p>
<p>It's important that we keep the memory of Hutchinson and those like her alive because there are forces out there that want us to forget. In Texas, a fundamentalist faction on the state school board has brought in three "experts" to add a generous dose of Religious Right revisionist history to the state's social studies standards. The trio has recommended that the standards omit references to Hutchinson.</p>
<p>One of the three, Massachusetts minister Peter Marshall, says Hutchinson is not a <a href="http://www.religiondispatches.org/archive/churchstate/1726/texas_board_of_education_wants_to_change_history/">prominent enough</a> colonial leader to warrant special study. (Marshall, who heads up a "Christian nation" outfit and has no degree in history, goes so far as to assert that Hutchinson's main accomplishment was "getting herself exiled from the Massachusetts Bay Colony for making trouble.")</p>
<p>These three could not be more wrong.</p>
<p>As the state of Massachusetts <a href="http://www.mass.gov/?pageID=mg2terminal&amp;L=6&amp;L0=Home&amp;L1=State+Government&amp;L2=About+Massachusetts&amp;L3=Interactive+State+House&amp;L4=Inside+the+State+House&amp;L5=Statues+in+Bronze&amp;sid=massgov2&amp;b=terminalcontent&amp;f=interactive_statehouse_statue_hutchinson&amp;csid=massgov2">observes</a> on a Web site, "More than perhaps any other colonial woman, Anne Hutchinson paved the way for religious liberty, and America's constitutional division of church and state." (Gee, maybe that's why the right wing wants us to forget about her!)</p>
<p>Students need to learn about Hutchinson. They need to learn about her brother-in-law, John Wheelwright, who was also expelled from the colony for preaching "heresy." They need to learn about Mary Dyer, one of several Quakers hanged on Boston Common in 1660 for no other reason than her religion. And yes, they need to learn about the victims of Salem's hysteria.</p>
<p>I'd like to see an entire unit on religious liberty in social studies courses – how we got it and what it means. Figures like Hutchinson, Wheelwright, Dyer, Roger Williams and the clergy who opposed state-established churches during the time of Thomas Jefferson and James Madison would feature prominently in that instruction. We can't expect young people to appreciate the rights we have today if they have no idea how we got them.</p>
<p>We need to embrace Anne Hutchinson and what she stands for, not attempt to exile her once again. If you live in Texas, I urge you to speak out against this travesty. You can submit online comments <a href="http://ritter.tea.state.tx.us/teks/socialstudiesTEKS.html">here</a>.</p>
<p>It has been said that those who do not remember history are condemned to repeat it. One could also say that those who attempt to censor history become active agents in the fostering of ignorance.</p>
<p>In my view, that is a much worse fate.</p>
</div></div><div class="tags clearfix"><div class="field-label">Issues:&nbsp;</div><div class="field-items"><span class="field-item"><a href="/issues/fighting-religious-right">Fighting the Religious Right</a></span>, <span class="field-item"><a href="/issues/religion-public-schools-and-universities">Religion in Public Schools and Universities</a></span></div></div><div class="tags clearfix"><div class="field-label">Tags:&nbsp;</div><div class="field-items"><span class="field-item"><a href="/tags/anne-hutchinson">Anne Hutchinson</a></span>, <span class="field-item"><a href="/tags/massachusetts">Massachusetts</a></span>, <span class="field-item"><a href="/tags/peter-marshall">Peter Marshall</a></span>, <span class="field-item"><a href="/tags/salem">salem</a></span>, <span class="field-item"><a href="/tags/texas-board-education">Texas Board of Education</a></span></div></div>Tue, 25 Aug 2009 16:15:41 +0000Rob Boston2011 at https://www.au.orghttps://www.au.org/blogs/wall-of-separation/lesson-from-boston-lets-not-exile-religious-dissenter-anne-hutchinson-again#comments